Cerci out!

Cerci finally off, Adriano on.

Niang probably shifting to the wing

Such a poor free kick.

Niang's try just beat it

Catch it Han !!

Yep.

C'mon, it's freaking Carpi! Are we going to reach a new low tonight?

Niang is so inconsistent! One moment he can pull a brilliant play, the next one he makes childish mistakes that even an amateur wouldn't make.

Damn!! Can't score now.

Boriello wasting time

Losing points here, simply not acceptable!!

A tutorial from Milan in how to waste corners

Disgraceful. We wanna get back in Europe? We can't even beat Carpi for crying out loud!

So, what's the main problem (beside the lack of quality)? I'd say, it's the midfield and our coach.

But one thing troubles me...when will the likes of Menez, Balotelli, de Jong, etc return?

Cerci is becoming the most frustrating player on our team. Hopefully in January we look to replace him with someone better, I think we could also use a midfielder.

Disappointing tie today, would have gone a long way towards helping us get back in the hunt

Cerci, Kučka, Montolivo. In that order, the most frustrating of this poor bunch. All other players just molded right in. No active play on Abates and MDS's part as well. A very very bad game.

Really? I thought Kucka, Bonaventura and Montolivo were the only good ones.

anyone got highlights was too late here 23:45pm kick off

whats this btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJdDbPHiUVY

Really??

The main problem in this match was our midfield. Carpi is a must-win match. Unlike the Atalantas or Sassuolos of this league, Carpi has very limited attacking/countering capabilities and a no-name midfield. So the basic point was to establish control and possession and then try patiently to create something. With most of the game we struggled to do that. Kučka run around but never managed to ignite a meaningful attack, Montolivo had some terrible passes, especially in the 2nd half. Both were completely unable to implement a gameplan. If they had white shirts, I'd easily believed they were Carpi and not Milan. Just think of the last few actions, the last 10-15 minutes. Carpi decided to defend at all cost; Monto especially had 2-3 chances where he had the space and time to virtually think of anything. What did he do? He played one and the same play over and over again, trying through balls.

No. The main problem is the midfield here. Starting with Mihajlović's preference of Kučka/Nocerino/Poli, but also the limited capabilities of our players.

I've been an aggressive critic of Kucka ever since we signed him, but last night I thought he did his job in spades. He recovered so many balls and took part in all our attacking plays. That's all you can ask from him. You cannot except him to ignite meaningful attacks, because that's not his job and he's a very limited player overall.

Monto played a good match, too. I didn't see any of your terrible passes, but a player who was truly trying to lead this crappy team of ours. Within his range, he did all he could. In the end, you cannot blame our lack of play on the two players in front of the defense. They're there to aid the defense and control the ball, and I think they did that well. Not great, but well. If anyone has to be criticized, it's got to be the four upfront. Save Bonaventura, neither Bacca, Cerci or Niang did anything remarkable. Bacca was invisible, Niang too inconsistent (sometimes tripping on his own feet) and Cerci was just... Cerci.

Thing is, we're playing 4-4-2 now, which turns to 4-2-4 when we're holding possession. If we couldn't score against Carpi blame it on the front line.

Yes, Cerci was very bad as well. And Niang inconsistent. I wouldn't blame a thing on Bacca though. He had the best shot of the game, run around and tried to be useful, but in the end he didn't get the service he deserves/needs to work. Bonaventura's and Monto's passing always tried to circumvent him and move the ball to the flanks, which were inefficient.

Look closer and you'll find horrible Monto errors, especially in the 2nd half. It seems to me you lowered your expectations and criteria. Because you make it sound like we played against Real Madrid, mentioning the two defensive mids helping the defense and making recoveries. But this was freaking Carpi!! Montolivo used to play AM for Fiorentina. Good God, he has to do more, he has to be more intelligent. All game long he tried two options: long passes or through balls. But when you play a obviously inferior player you have to try more, try harder and try different things. Bonaventura, with all his limitations, tried this at least!

You're right about Kucka, he should have been subbed off. It's not that he was bad per se, but the last 30 minutes we really didn't need that kind of player around.

One thing I noticed though. Don't you see that exactly the part you praise didn't work and doesn't work for weeks now? The ball transfer from defense to midfield, which is kind of a step one for gameplan development and offensive actions. Our fullbacks and CB's have a real problem distributing the ball around because we have too many deep mids holding their hands, we have fullbacks that don't sprint up/down in planned offensives. So after the ball gets to Kucka and Monto they're under immense pressure, while the sole option for a clean pass is either: 1) a back-pass, 2) finding Bona, 3) a long pass/through ball. That's very limited, makes our attacks less dangerous and more predictable and gives the opponent a chance to recover the ball fast.

Juventus did that and made us look like we have no gameplan. To an extent, Carpi did the same. So, Mihajlovićs tactics ain't working, I'm sure of that.

Of course I have lowered my expectations. You're still talking as if this is the great Milan of old, but we're a mediocre team nowadays. Yes, not winning against Carpi is inexcusable, but at the same time it's also expected, not surprising and overall reflects the quality of our players.

If I'm praising Kucka and Montolivo, I'm doing it within their limitations. I am full aware that Kucka is a below-average, Genoa-level player that was about to sign for Bursaspor. So, when I say he had a good match I am taking that into consideration. Same with Monto. It doesn't matter that he used to play AM for Fiorentina 5 years ago. The guy is past his prime and the best he can do nowadays is simply play the ball as anchor. I don't expect glimpses of genius from him, nor do I expect him to change the outcome of a match. But against Carpi you could see that he really tried hard within his limited range.

Bottom line is, we can't expect these players to invent marvels from their books. Most of them are average and wouldn't be starting for any other top side.

I miss Jeremy Menez

I think micro-analysing anything at this point is useless.

The coach isn't good enough, the players certainly aren't. That goes without saying, not being able to beat Carpi for me though perfectly illustrates what I've been saying for a while, this isn't just about the individuals and their quality. Not being able to win against this year's Serie A punching bags is a perfect example of all that is wrong with this team

It was the same case under Allegri, Pippo and now Miha.

I'm curious to see what will happen if this ends up being another Europe-less season. Will Silvio continue supporting Galliani? What about Mr. Bee? Will we continue spending big money next summer as well, or was it just a one-time thing and we'll return to signing free agents? What happened to the new stadium? This club is still a huge mystery.

For me as long as Galliani is there making all the decisions it's pointless to waste money, in Maltese we have a saying, which basically means ploughing through water, which is exactly what we're doing now by giving Galliani big budgets to throw away.

The Bee deal is looking more and more like a mystery with each passing day, the Stadium plans fell through. I honestly don't know what direction this club is headed in.

But after spending a 100m in the summer and still being unable to make a serious challenge to get to the top 3 spots in a pretty sh!tty league, I can't see no action being taken against Galliani.

Oh come on, it's not a shitty league. Italian football is gradually improving. One side in the CL final and two in the EL semi finals last year, a higher coefficient than England right now, and all its representative clubs passing this year's CL and EL group stages. I think they're on the right track. Just needs some more support from the state.

It's certainly not great. Had Juve not started out the way they did, they would have already ran away with it like they've done in recent years. Fiorentina and Inter being top says it all.

Fact is, Italy has a long way to go before it's anywhere near as competitive as it once was

It's impossible.

So what? Spain has every year the usual two sides competing for the title, yet it's the most highly ranked league in Europe. Same with Germany. Just because Juve are superior doesn't mean the rest are sh*t.

And you can say whatever you want about Inter, that they play ugly, defensive football, that they're lucky and whatnot, but Mancini has been able to build a balanced and competitive team that's got some pretty good players overall.

I'm not saying Serie A is as competitive as it was in the past, but it's also far from being a shitty league, which is what originally claimed.

You usually have 2 ways to define a great league. A league that attract great players and a league that produces great players. The Serie A is none of the above so it's qualifies as a "shitty" league. It's up for debate offcourse , but please realise that the Serie A once was the dominating league in Europe, maybe even the world. And not one player in all of Serie A is world class at the moment. Milan is not the Milan it once was and with the financial issues going on at the moment it never will. The fact that Milan , if it won the game against Juve , could have gone into 4th or 5th place easily shows how weak this league has become. There were times we had a world class team and barely made CL.

I respectfully disagree.

Point is Spain, Germany and England have teams with world class players in them, players who would view moving to Serie A as a step back, whereas in the past it was something a player aspired to achieve in his career.

We have top class players in the league who are choosing to move to Germany now, when in the past it was the other way around.

Sure the league is not in such a dire situation as it was in a few years ago, but let's not kid and disillusion ourselves, it's no where near as competitive as England or Spain and it certainly doesn't have a team of the calibre of Bayern in it. Juve, the best club in this league by a country mile had to sell off their best player last summer, and will do so again next summer when Pogba leaves as well. Not to mention losing 2 of their most influential players because they were getting too old.

Inter, Fiorentina and Roma have supposedly done well if you look at the table, but they are where they are because everyone in this league is so inconsistent and as I said Juve had a stuttering start, which no one really anticipated. In no other top league would those 3 teams be leading the race, that's for sure

So, which one is it? I never claimed Serie A is a top league, but I gave you arguments why it's not a shitty league. You're giving me arguments why it's not a top league. Those two concepts are worlds apart.

You completely went off course in your argument. Just admit that you jumped the gun in your original statement and let's move on.

Not being as bad as it once was, which was far worse off than sh!tty imo, to calling it sh!tty now, there is a difference. You're concentrating on a word I said, would you have been just as defensive had I said "bad" instead of "shitty". Because that's simply 2 sides of the same coin.

The league is simply not good enough, call it bad, call it shitty. It's no where near what it once was (I reiterate) and basically in every other area whether it's a marketable one, competitive one, attractive one, it's simply no where near the other top leagues

No, I'm not concentrating on just a word you said. I'm concentrating on what you initially claimed and what you proceeded to argue afterwards.

If Serie A is a shitty league, then the Premier League is also shitty. It doesn't matter if it has more world class players. English clubs have been abysmal for some time now in Europe, and head-on Italy has been superior. Juve beating City twice this season is concrete proof of that. And Juve are not even Top 4 in the standings right now.

Europe alone is not an indication, England has the financial power and marketability to recover quickly from one or two bad seasons. Italy doesn't have that.

Also, we're deviating from the subject by comparing single one off games in Europe, if we're taking that as indication The drubbing Juve got from Barca last season and the one from Bayern the season prior to that should tell you enough about the disparity with the leagues when you have the undisputed best side in Serie A getting trounced by what should be their equal counter parts from the other top leagues.

Point is, England, domestically is a far more competitive league, where you have 3/4 top class clubs competing for the title each year, with Spain, it's the obvious 2 big clubs, but even so, there is still more competition in that league than the one horse race that Serie has been since Calciopoli, first Inter and now Juve, with only one other measly title winner between those 2 strongholds on the top of the league table; us.

You're dwelling in the past, Han. England is pretty mediocre right now. If you don't wanna take head-to-head contests into consideration, then refer to the coefficient. Why is Italy ahead right now if it's such a shitty league and England is so great? This great league will potentially lose one CL spot from next season to the shitty league you're so fiercely criticizing. It's because in the last four years Italian clubs have done better than English sides in Europe, which is the best common grounds to estimate a league's potential. Forget money and marketing power, England has always been ahead in that aspect.

It all depends on how you see Milan now. If you consider Milan to be a "mid-table" team ala Udinese , then yes, Milan is playing good & decent. If you still see Milan as a top team/club , then they play "shitty" football.

I believe Milan's luck is the awefull state of the competition.

Pretty much a 4-2-4. I like it honestly.

Milan- Verona thread is open

Woops, didn't pay attention.

I'm not talking about Milan, I'm talking about the league.

Both are shitty if you ask me, the fact that Juve for example will most likely still win it in the end just goes to show how little competition there is.

The fact that we're still within a reasonable point distance that we can still make it into the European spots also says enough.

Juve will win jackshit this season.

You sure about that one?

Inter will win it. And I hope they do, because it'll be another wake up call for Silvio.

Nah, hoping for Inter winning titles won't do any good. If Silvio is not awake already, this won't do the trick either.

Juve will win it in the end, there's more than half the season still to go. I think you're jumping the gun here.

The league is not strong, and if Juve find their rhythm, they'll simply trounce over everyone they come up against like they've done for the past few years.

Inter have had a good and albeit lucky start, but I don't see them winning the title